Nagelsmann looks ahead to PSG: "This won't be good enough for Tuesday."
ayern München head-coach Julian Nagelsmann still found plenty of things to criticize his team for even after their 3-0 win over Bochum.
With clear references to the upcoming Tuesday Champions' League fixture in Paris, Nagelsmann challenged his team to play better.
A largely uncompetitive 3-0 dusting off of VfL Bochum gave league-leaders FC Bayern München their third consecutive win on-the-spin Saturday. After beginning the new calendar4 year with a string of three straight draws, it appears as if a "mini-crisis" for the defending champions has been averted. At least, that's what one might say if the German giants weren't poised for a crucial Champions' League battle against PSG on Tuesday.
With clear references to the upcoming Tuesday Champions' League fixture in Paris, Nagelsmann challenged his team to play better.
Speaking to the Sky mics after the latest win, FCB trainer Julian Nagelsmann made clear that he considered the latest match to be a dress-rehearsal of sorts for Tuesday's showdown at the Parc-des-Princes. Moreover, he made it perfectly clear that he wasn't totally satisfied with the latest product.
"If we play like this on Tuesday, it will not be enough to advance," Nagelsmann told his post-match interviewer, "One has to move more actively against a tired team like Bochum. We started with a very good opening six minutes, then followed it up with bad play until the 60th."
Nagelsmann was clearly annoyed that his squad didn't put the opponent away early and run up the score, as Bayern are, in particular, known to do against Bochum. The FCB gaffer also seemed displeased with the lack of play up-the-middle; a criticism he has leveled at his team before.
"Without straightforward play, the score was 0-0 when it could have been 2-0 or 3-0," Nagelsmann noted, "If we play really full throttle - which is fun - and bring some good movement and enthusiasm on the pitch, then you can carry the momentum from the first six minutes and make it 4-0, 5-0, 6-0 very quickly."
There were indeed many dry spells from Bayern during the victory. The team's problematic "paint the corner possession" reared its ugly head again. Counterattacks were, noticeably, poorly executed. Bayern were only able to open the scoring in the first half thanks to an egregious passing error from Bochum defender Saidy Janko.